Jari Poikulainen

Wild oat inpections in Finland

Inspector Jari PoikulainenEvira Loimaa

Crop farming areas

-Total arable land area around 2,25 million ha

-Cereals year 2012 1,1 million ha

-Grasslands 666 000 ha

-Other crops (potato, rape, sugar beet, caraway etc.) 203 000 ha

-Fallows 275 000 ha

Jari Poikulainen

The distribution in Finland

-In grasslands there occurs seldom wild oat problems (several mowings during the season, wildoat cannot produce new seeds)

-Areas where main crops are cereals,suffer most of wild oat = that means Kymenlaakso,

Uusimaa, Varsinais-Suomi, Satakunta , Häme and Pohjanmaa regions

- So called ”milk Finland” wild oat has notdistributed widely (yet)(mainly dairy production and grasslands)

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Contaminated area % of arable land regionally (year 2009)

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Regulations

• Law of control of wild oat (185/2002) • Regulation of control wild oat (326/2002)

The purpose of the law is to maintain high-qualityplant production by promoting the rejection of the wild oat

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Authorities

• The general control and supervision belongs to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry

• Evira takes care of the law from execution and from the arranging of the supervision

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Authorities

• In the inspections Evira helps ELY-centres(ELY-centre = Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment, 13 regional centres. EU´s and national subsidy administration and farm surveillance)

• The authorities of municipalities have the responsibility for the ‘practice control’

• The customs control import

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Authorities

• Annual control plan (Evira)

• Right of inspection: authorities can inspect the areas (the farmer cannot forbid an inspection)

• Register of the areas in which wild oats has been found (municipal authorities, a part of nationwide net (IACS) for the administration of supports etc.)

- IACS system incorporates all farm scale data from every single farm, plot codes, all cultivated crops, varieties, support applications etc.

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Duties of the municipality authorities• To receive the announcement of the wild oat

• To carry out the inspection on new wild oat area

• To draw up farmer instructions (= how to eradicate wild oat)

• To draw up farmer protection plan (= how to prevent wild oats dispersion and eradicate wild oat, 3-4 years plan)

• To make a decision of protection plan

• To carry out inspection for fields which are free of wild oats after eradicate measures (spraying and weeding after several years)

• Register: put new fields/areas in register, keeping of the information of the register on up to date, changes in the register information etc.

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ELY-centers duties

• Inspections which are given in control plan

• If a farmer has plots in several municipalities or if the contamination degree is very high, ELY-centers take care of these inspections

• If the authority of the municipality is disqualified, he can postpone the inspections to the ELY centre

• ELY-centers control always wild oats when carrying out subsidy inspection (on all basic field plots wild oat is checked)

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Eviras duties• annual control plan• to train the inspectors of the Ely-centres and municipalities and also other inspectors

• makes inspections • audits inspectors• informs about the wild oat in the papers and in the media

• advises inspectors and also farmers• report to the ministry

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Duties of the holder of the area

• Duty to control (e.g weeding, chemical control) wild oats ant prevent spreading

Notification:• If one knows or suspects that there occurs wild oats of which it has not been informed earlier, he has to notify to the municipality authority immediately(location, plot number)

• The inspectors (field inspectors, support inspectors etc.) have to notify the municipality authority

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Duty to inform• the holder and deliverer of the area must give the information about the wild oats before any agreement

• The authority must give information whether the parcel is in the register or not on request (land trade, rental agreement).

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”There should not be found so many….

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Inspection that the wild oat does not appear in the area = The basic field can be removed from a register• The holder/farmer asks inspection in a support application

• Instructions or control plan (given by authority)

• Inspection cannot carry out if wrong crop species (e.g. fallow, oats, rye, oil seed rape, caraway, potato, mustard grassland, heavy lodging or farmer has made chemical control or weeding)

• If the first year inspection is OK. , the inspection of second year without a separate request

• On the basic field a wild oat must not appear during two consecutive years -> basic field is free of wild oat

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Wild oat register

- Year 2012 there was 16,5 % of total field area in wild oat register (based on farmers ownnotifications) = 370 000 ha

-8700 ha was estimated to be seriouslycontaminated

- What is the serious occurrence? How todefine contamination degree (weeding, chemical control)?

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Wild oat register

The whole plot (area whatever between 0,3 – 50 ha) belongs automatically to the register

…if one and only single wild oat is observed in a plot, the whole area is registered

..and all landowners/farmers do not report of wildoat

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Control plan

• Evira makes annual control plan • The control plan is based on the risk evaluation• Basic field on which there is a bad spreading• We have taken for example the farms which have informed bad spread being on the field

• Farmers who have difficulties to carry out the special protection plan (every year wrong spraying time, too light spray, sowing farm own seed, which is full of wild oats, …)

• Spreading field which are near the seed fields

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Inspectors worst ”clients”

• ”I do not have enough time to check all fieds” = rush times during the growing season, big farms, other business

• ”Chemical control is too expensive” (compare to the price level of barley)

• ”Why must just I to to control because the neighbours do not care”

• Other problems: Bankcrupty, divorse….

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If orders/control plan not fulfilled?

• In serious cases sanction are possible

• Given by Ely-center after subsidy supervision

• All LFA, environmental subsidies and national subsidies can be cut 1-100 %

• Municipal authorities can give destruction orderor even outsourcing (chemical control, mowingetc.)

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Administrative coercive measures:

1. Disposal (= to destroy the plant stand at the farmer's expense)

2. Decision to export the product from the country (maastavientimääräys)

3. Serious offence: penalty payment (Evira) (in practise too complicated process)

4. Minor offence: Evira gives a written remark

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Inspection in practise

• First observations on every plot

• Then filling inspection protocol- deviations = what kind of neclects has beendone- how wide occurrences are- measures (weeding, crushing the growth,mowing it away if needed)- is there need to order a protection plan?

+ signatures (farmer and inspector)

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Diaposals behind dryers

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Marking wild oat in oat plot using red tape… well, go and check what is growing there!

Jari Poikulainen